There is no “one for all” menu board that anyone can give
you to determine the price your advertising will cost without doing some
research first. What I do is match my
customers advertising goals to those three main points. Location, the station that
would best reach the type of customer my client needs and the time of day they
are listening.

I always have to ask myself questions about budget that magic number plays a
big part in any radio commercial or advertising campaign.

“Can my client afford to be on the air during drive time?”

“Can my client afford to be on multiple times a day?”

“Can they be on more than one station or would it be better to focus the budget
on one highly targeted station and go for high frequency?”

These are all issues that run through my mind as I work with
a business owner that wants to advertise on the radio.

Oftentimes what one may “guess” to be
the best idea for advertising; or approach to take will not be the most
effective. Unless you work in the
industry day in and day out and know where these pitfalls lie, it is very easy
to fall into one and loose a boat load of money in the process. It’s important
not to go into radio advertising blindly and just use your gut. While it can be
the most effective medium out there to promote a business, it can also suck
your bank dry if you are not doing it right.

There is a method to the madness of radio advertising. There is also usually some form or radio
advertising for virtually any budget in any city. Obviously it will cost more
to advertise in larger cites because you are paying to reach more people, but
the options are there. It’s all a matter of placing a quality commercial in an
optimized place on the correct station for a set period of time.

The first thing you need to do if you are considering radio advertising is to
ask yourself three things: Who do you want to reach? Where are they located? What
can you offer them to make them take action?
Those are key points to consider before starting a radio campaign.

If I can help in any way, feel free to reach out to me through the info in the
resource section.

Chances
are if you are reading this article with a preconceived notion that radio
listenership is low or down. You may have a friend who said “Who listens to the
radio anymore?!”. After reading this you
will be able to give them they answer on an industry they thought they knew so
much about. The short answer “Millions my friend, millions”… then trail off
with an evil laugh.

Radio attracts nearly 66.5 million adults to its airwaves each and every week.
Not bad for a medium that many people call “old”. The reality of the situation
is this: Yes, there are other medium out there to advertise on, however there
is yet to be a medium that reaches people in the mass number that radio does.
The recent study showed that nearly 93.1% of all adults 12+ listen to the radio
each week.

So think about it, nearly 93.1% of the people in your city are tuned into a
radio at some point in the day. Maybe it’s on the way to or from work. Maybe it’s
streaming the local station at their desk to play the contest that promises to
give away hundreds each day. It could be the clock radio as one gets ready to
head off to a busy day in the office or as that same person calms down for the
evening and drifts off to sleep. Radios are all over the place, and people are
using them.

That is why the medium of radio is so effective and relied upon by millions of
businesses every year for advertising their messages. Radio commercials reach
thousands of people at a time. Compare this to more current mediums and break
down the numbers of what it costs to reach an individual and you will find that
number (defined as cost per thousand) to be the lowest in radio. If you were to
ask me "what is the cheapest way to reach the most people. “I always tell
them “radio”.

Of course there are other factors that play into the medium of radio and radio
commercials being effective. Being on the correct station at the correct time
with an effective radio commercial are key. This however can all be mapped out
with an industry expert free of charge if you know where to look. (Hint: Check
my contact info in the resource box).

With a little research (which you are clearly working on right now), investment
in your business you too can utilize the medium to your advantage.

Before you make the investment in radio advertising one of the first things you need to consider is who you are advertising to. This is your target customer. If you do not know who your target customer is, take a step back and re-examine your business strategy. This should be something that you can spit out within.02 seconds of someone asking you who your target customer is. Maybe your target customer is multiple people. If this is the case ask yourself what is it that you want to advertise and who is the target customer for that specific product or service.once you've established this the next three steps should be fairly easy to get through.

Step one: Identify what it is that would drive customers to want the product or service you are offering. When people come to you and actually purchase your product or service what are they telling you? How are they describing the need you fulfilled by offering a product or service? This will be key once to get to the step of creating the actual commercial. The commercial itself will need to address this need.

Step two: Hire someone who knows what they're doing when it comes to writing a commercial. No matter how creative you think you are or how well your writing skills were in high school, chances are you're not qualified to write an effective radio commercial. Believe it or not there is a method to the madness when it comes to writing effective radio advertising copy. A small investment of hiring a radio commercial production company will be well worth it versus you scribbling a few lines down on paper that your employees will inevitably tell you "sounds great", yet your audience will completely miss the point of. Trust me I do this for a living and I've seen some very well-intentioned copy come across my desk from some very charismatic business owners, while the copy may look good it may not work. That is why we do what we do.

Step three: Identify the radio stations that best fits the audience you are trying to reach. This can be a bit tricky if you do not understand the demographics of radio. Just because you like a radio station, does not mean that your audience is listening to it. This is a pitfall that I see hundreds of business owners fall into every year. The business likes a specific type of music, while the target audience is listening to the polar opposite radio station. Ask the company that you had create your radio commercial if they can assist you with the media buy and negotiation with the radio station to help ensure your message gets to the right audience.